As you’ve been following the Inside BlackBerry® Developer’s Blog over the past few months, you’ve probably noticed that the BlackBerry® Java® SDK v7.0 is available for download in BlackBerry Developer Zone, as well as BlackBerry smartphone simulators for the recently announced BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810 smartphone, BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 smartphone, and the BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone, all running BlackBerry® 7 OS. Along with the tools, there’s also supporting documentation guiding you through the work of migrating an existing BlackBerry Java app to BlackBerry 7.

While BlackBerry smartphone simulators do provide a very accurate representation of what the experience will be like on a live device, there’s just no substitute for the real thing. Or is there?

How does it work? Perfecto Mobile essentially hosts live BlackBerry smartphones and provides you remote access to them, allowing you to install and test your app on real devices, on real carrier networks.

Having just received a new BlackBerry® Bold™ 9900 smartphone, I made some notes while setting it up and put together the following guide to help new users get started with BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones. So if you’ve just purchased one or plan on purchasing one in the near future, here are a few things you’ll want to know.

Before we begin, if you are upgrading from a previous BlackBerry® smartphone, you can use the Device Switch Wizard included with BlackBerry® Desktop Manager to quickly migrate your settings to a new BlackBerry 7 OS smartphone. For more information on how to do this, check out the following links:

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It’s no secret that the BlackBerry® 7 OS has arrived on a whole set of brand new BlackBerry® smartphones. There are many exciting features of the new operating system that enhance the business experience that BlackBerry smartphones have always provided. Here are our top five features of the BlackBerry 7 OS for business users:

Documents To Go® Premium

This app is a true companion to those who do business on the go; it is designed to allow you to open, edit, save, or create new documents including Microsoft® Word, Excel®, and PowerPoint® files on your BlackBerry smartphone. When you need to make one small change to that report, or a colleague is asking for you to review a presentation, you can make changes quickly and efficiently while on the go.

Yesterday was a big day for us on the Social Media team at Research In Motion® (RIM®)! To celebrate the launch of the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810 and our other new BlackBerry® 7 OS smartphones, we hosted a fan event in Toronto and invited members of #TeamBlackBerry and the media to try out our new devices. Thank you to all of our attendees for making the event such a success!

Why do we patrol these events with a notepad, camera, and open ears? Because we are committed to incorporating your feedback into the designs of BlackBerry smartphones, and we want other BlackBerry device owners and shoppers to hear what you have to say. While the BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone is not yet in stores, we’ve posted these early hands-on impressions so you can know what to expect when it hits shelves. Remember, we may have provided the BlackBerry Torch smartphone, but these opinions belong to press and everyday consumers and BlackBerry smartphone users like you. Please don’t hesitate to post your own comment and let us know what you think about the new BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone.

“Augmented Reality: is simply something that needs to be seen to be believed; it’s actually awesome. RIM partnered with Mobilizy to provide Wikitude for BlackBerry 7. You can locate YouTube videos that were made by GPS location, your BBM contacts, and create points of interest right from your phone.”

The BlackBerry® Torch™ smartphone family is welcoming a whole slew of new siblings today. In addition to the all-touch BlackBerry® Torch™ 9850 and 9860 smartphones, we also announced the BlackBerry® Torch™ 9810 smartphone, the evolution of the popular BlackBerry® Torch™ 9800 smartphone. #TeamBlackBerry members in North America will be able to purchase the BlackBerry 9810 smartphone from AT&T, Bell, Telus and Rogers. For more details on pricing and international availability, make sure to check out our BlackBerry Torch product page or contact your local carrier.

We asked Product Manager David to get the inside dirt on the 3 things you need to know about the BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone. Let’s do this!

Our intention with the BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone was to build upon the success of the original BlackBerry Torch all-in-one design by combining powerful new hardware with the powerful new BlackBerry® 7 OS. The new BlackBerry Torch 9810 improves upon its predecessor, the BlackBerry Torch 9800, with a crisp new 3.2” inch touch screen with a VGA (640×480) resolution at 246 DPI (“dots per inch”), which is a great tip-off to the new hardware under the hood. The BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone also features a 1.2 GHz processer, a 5 MP camera with HD video recording, face detection and image stabilization, a digital compass and HSPA+ network support. Combined with the BlackBerry 7 OS, these new hardware features ensure that the BlackBerry 9810 smartphone is faster and more fluid than its predecessor.

We’ve also added subtle refinements to the traditional BlackBerry Torch casing, as well as its keypad. To top it off, we coated the BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone in a distinctive silver color that we feel reflects the power and performance of the device.

2. The BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone is a great blend of form and function

Like the other new all-touch BlackBerry Torch smartphones, the big, brilliant touch screen of the BlackBerry Torch 9810 is well-suited for 3D games, watching videos and browsing the web. If you need to get some work done on the go, that screen is also handy for viewing Microsoft® PowerPoint® and Microsoft Word documents with the free bundled Premium version of Docs to Go™. Of course, if you need to start editing those documents, or you want to fire off a few emails or BBM™ your friends, you can easily switch to portrait mode and slide out the full QWERTY keypad. The BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone’s HD camera captures photos or video and makes it easy to share both with friends via Facebook, Twitter, and BBM 6 (or possibly through that BBM 6-connected app you’ve downloaded). Regardless of your needs, the BlackBerry 9810 smartphone offers the flexibility to get it done.

3. The new BlackBerry 7 powers the BlackBerry Torch 9810

Like the all-touch BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860, the BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone is running the brand new BlackBerry 7 OS, and thus shares many of the same benefits. For starters this means a new and improved BlackBerry browser, optimized touch screen UI (“user interface”), BBM 6, hardware accelerated Liquid Graphics, and support for new apps like the Wikitude augmented reality browser on the BlackBerry App World™ storefront. Make sure to check out what my coworkers Sangita and Troy had to say about these BlackBerry 7 features in their BlackBerry Torch 9850 and 9860 post, and stay tuned for a more in-depth overview from BlackBerry 7 Product Manager, Annu, in a future blog post.

For my money, my favorite BlackBerry 7 feature has to be the next generation BlackBerry browser. The BlackBerry browser is smooth and responsive, whether scrolling through web pages with your fingers or using the trackpad. Web pages load at tremendous speeds, and are naturally rendered as you’d expect to see them on your desktop browser, thanks to Liquid Graphics.

Post a comment and let David know what you think of the new BlackBerry Torch 9810 smartphone!!